Joe Girardi blames umps for ugly Yankees-Tigers brawl

The New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers engaged in probably the ugliest game of baseball you’ll see all season Thursday. It wasn’t so much that the play on the field was poor, but the antics of players on both sides were so brutal that the contest was nearly unwatchable.

You can tell from the video that Girardi is angry, but he does a good job keeping his composure and not losing his temper. He mainly comes off as frustrated by everything.

Some choice quotes from Girardi’s post-game media scrum include:

“It was poorly handled.”

“If you’re not going to allow us to protect ourselves, what are you going to allow us to do?”

“I just don’t understand why there’s no warning. Why is he throwing him out?” – Referring to Tommy Kahnle throwing behind Miguel Cabrera. Girardi was ejected after the play.

“Understand the game. Understand the importance of the game. Understand how the game is supposed to be played.”

“I know that rule, Dana. C’mon.” – Referring to his conversation with first base ump Dana DeMuth after DeMuth told him a player can be ejected even if there is no warning.

“Not to mention, the strike zone at the end of the game.” – Girardi believed the Yankees received some questionable calls after the brawls, possibly due to the umps just wanting the game to be over.

“Just really a poor job.”

“They’ve taken it out of our hands and put it as a judgement, and I don’t like it. If you’re going to put it in their hands, have them make the right judgements. There should have been a warning after Fulmer hit Gary Sanchez. Because if that’s not intentional, I don’t know what is.”

“Don’t compile mistake on mistake.”

“I think it would have changed it.” – If a warning was issued at that point, Girardi believed things would have been different.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi was not pleased with the umps following Thursday’s game. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

So, yeah, that’s 10 instances where Girardi went after the umps. While he wasn’t as harsh as Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler with his words, we would anticipate Girardi will hear from the league about a potential fine.

If there’s any positive to come out of all this, it’s that Girardi may have sparked a rallying cry for the Yankees to use down the stretch. Toward the end of the video, he says his advice for the team is “continue to fight together. On the field, and everything that we do.”

We wouldn’t be surprised to see that on some t-shirts as the team battles for the playoffs down the stretch.